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Is our country founded on genocide of Native Americans?

Debate Information

United States was formed on land previously owned by Native Americans.  Either by war, commercial transcations, spreading of disease...that land was taken away.  Is it fair to argue that we are responsible for the genocide of Native American population?
natbaronsjoecavalryrandalnorthsouthkoreabillpassed
  1. Live Poll

    Is our country founded on genocide of Native Americans?

    14 votes
    1. Yes
      71.43%
    2. No
      28.57%
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    Arguments


  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    I mean, If murdering the people that treated you well to establish a country, ISN'T genocide, Then i'm not sure what is.
    natbaronsEmeryPearson
  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    I mean, If murdering the people that treated you well to establish a country, ISN'T genocide, Then i'm not sure what is.
    natbaronsEmeryPearson
  • CuriousGeorgeCuriousGeorge 109 Pts   -  
    Overall I am afraid that it is.  Clearly it was not all black and white, and the conflict with Native Americans escalated to a war where we had to protect ourselves.  But, we did cheat them of their land and essentially killed them off.
    natbaronsEmeryPearson
  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    @CuriousGeorge  Takes a real man to admit the crimes of his country.
    Respect.
    natbaronsEmeryPearson
  • natbaronsnatbarons 133 Pts   -  
    It is founded on a gene code and not too many native Americans are left.
  • AbaterAbater 2 Pts   -  
    Genocide : the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=genocide&oq=genocide&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.1200j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    Granted that a lot of natives died, but they died fighting a war they believed in. They were not targeted because they were natives, there was no systematic plan to wipe them all out. They fought a war which they lost. There were some battles which they won (Eg. Little Big Horn) but many in which they lost. This was a war for control of the country, not genocide. If you are genocidal, your goal is total extinction of your target ethnic group. You do not take hostages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas) and you definitely do not marry them :)

    Hitler committed genocide - rounded up jews and exterminated them in gas chambers. They were not at war, he targeted them specifically because they were jews, basically rounded them all up and gassed them. That's what genocide means. 


    EmeryPearson
  • melanielustmelanielust 285 Pts   -  
    What happened to Native Americans shouldn't NOT be considered genocide, and Americans + settlers were largely or completely responsible.

    When the Spanish arrived in the New World, they brought unfamiliar diseases that ravaged the Native American population, killing 90% of them within a matter of years. Whether or not that counts as genocide Ian debatable, but look at the way the natives were treated - many were forced into slave-like conditions harsher than the conditions African Americans were put under. In fact, the reason why African American chattel slavery wasn introduced was because all of the Native American slaves died under Spain's harsh conditions, just to give you a scope of how awful it was.

    Then when the American colonies were in power, there were always movements to destroy and "rebel against" remaining native tribes. Americans were actually distinctly hostile in their relations with natives when compared to the French, Dutch, etc.

    Later on, pre-Civil war era, came the biggest indicators of genocide. Natives were now being forcibly relocated to the west. There were laws passed to get all the Cherokee out of Georgia, for example, leading to the Trail of Tears - in which over 4000 natives died after being marched out west with little warning under heinous conditions, young, old, women and children. This has been compared to the events of the Armenian genocide, where people were dragged from their homes to be "relocated" and ended up marching to their death. And that's just ONE example of dozens in this era alone where natives were relocated.

    Over the later years, post Civil War, natives were all forced into reservations at the convenience of the American government. Again these reservations had (and still have) terrible conditions. If ONE piece of legislature changed, then the natives would all be chased out of their own reservations, round up, and killed. This happened when gold was discovered in a Lakota reservation, and at the battle of Wounded Knee, to name a few. It's  safe to say that every law passed in this era left natives at a terrible disadvantage that resulted in most of them being murdered. If that isn't genocide I don't not know what is.

    Finally, after decades more of suppression, the 60s and 70s came along and natives began to speak out for their economic rights on reservations ... and were met with similar responses. A gunfight on a reservation left dozens dead and no gains for natives, incidentally also at Wounded Knee.

    The trend isn't that hard to see. Natives have been and still are the most disadvantaged group in America. They have always been relocated, wiped out , killed, without any sense or humanity. Their culture has been 100% destroyed because of strict assimilation politics, which is horrendous and a deeply troubling part of America's history.

    I don't think America was founded on any principle of genocide but they did play a role in making genocide happen.
    joecavalryuzairmahmudEmeryPearson
  • joecavalryjoecavalry 430 Pts   -  
    I agree with @melanielust , this was a genocide. The settlers knew what they were doing and decided to execute the mass killing of native Americans who lived on the land much longer than any American settlers did at that time coming in from many countries, especially Europe. 
    melanielustEmeryPearson
    DebateIslander and a DebateIsland.com lover. 
  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -  
    This is the same as saying Islam was founded on conquest and the voluntary or coerced conversion of the inhabitants in the areas in which it spread.
    LogicEmeryPearson
  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    @CYDdharta  Wrong, Actually the prophet was preaching peacefully then , Woops!  He got attacked by his own people and kicked out of his home, So he went to medina, Preached gained some followers [He had some followers in mecca, they were also kicked out] So he went to fight for his home. When he took medina, He didn't force anyone to convert. They only had to pay the jizya for protection. If you are talking about Ayam Al- Jihad,  Then the same thing. No one was forced to convert.
  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -  
    @Logic Inhabitants had to pay protection money??  It sounds like the mafia.  What happened if they didn't pay?
  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    @CYDdharta Please don't lump in the present with the past, Back then multiple tribes and cities would attack other cities. Nearly every month there was a war with at least a few cities.  Also, [Correct me if i'm wrong]  Doesn't some of your money reach the government? Which in some cases is used to strengthen the military right?  You're paying for your protection to. When you get a bodyguard, Do you pay him to protect you or not?  Also, if they didn't pay, They'd be exiled. The same thing they did to the prophet, would happen to them. It's enough he gave them a chance.
  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -  
    @Logic :D "Please don't lump in the present with the past".  That's classic in a thread about American "genocide" of Native American. 

    Nothing happens to me if i don't pay money to, say, Methodists, or Lutherans, or Moonies or any other church or cult.
    Logicrandal
  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    @CYDdharta  But the claim at hand is that america is founded on genocide, This is factual history. But right now you are comparing the jizya to mafia giving protection.  
    Also, Did you kick the Lutherans or the moonies [And so on]  Out of your home? And then they came and took it back?  The point of the jizya is:  You kicked me out of my home, I took it back.  But i won't kill or exile you. Just pay me for your protection, And protected you will be.
    randal
  • randalrandal 67 Pts   -  
    I agree with @cydharta .
  • LogicLogic 279 Pts   -  
    @randal On what?
  • northsouthkoreanorthsouthkorea 221 Pts   -  
    there is no superior reasoning other than God created everything. The genocide of Indians was made my the Americans who settled on the Indians land at the time that this had happened.
  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -   edited May 2017
    @northsouthkorea No, that is incorrect.  Americans seized land from England when they won a war.  Americans seized land from Mexico when they won a war.  They bought land from France, Spain, Russia... You can blame Europeans (England, Portugal, Spain, France) for taking Native Americans' lands, but not Americans.  The Americans didn't seize land the way the Spanish Conquistadors pillaged and plundered their way through Central and South America.
    billpassedEmeryPearson
  • billpassedbillpassed 146 Pts   -  
    I agree with @CYDHarta .
    EmeryPearson
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